


Des mots de tous les jours

by inkbloot



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, So tsukki knows some french, Tsukkis mom is french
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 16:17:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10135997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkbloot/pseuds/inkbloot
Summary: The first thing he asked him to translate was “dinosaur”.“Dinosaure,” Kei had told him. “Why do you want to know that, out of everything?”“I thought it might be a word you’re familiar with,” Tadashi had answered with a playful grin, glancing to the various dinosaur toys lined on Kei’s shelves.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ive always wanted to write a fic where one of the characters speak french. why you ask? because im an attention hoe that wants to brag about the fact that i speak french. and also because i think language exchange is really cute and romantic.
> 
> thanks to my pal tornad.tumblr.com for practically doing everything here except the actual writing. if she didnt tell me to write this right the fuck now, i wouldve never written it.  
> though also maybe fuck you because it was 1:30 am and i was ready to go to bed and now it's 3 am and i'm still not asleep.

One thing that people noticed when they saw Tsukishima Kei for the first time was how tall and lanky he was. Another thing was that his hair was blonde and his eyes the color of honey. None of those things reminded anyone of what japanese men looked like. No one asked though, because another thing you saw straight away was that Tsukishima Kei was not one to make small talk to.

Because of that, there was a very visible part of him that everyone saw but no one really knew about. It was obvious that he had some other origin in his blood, but that was not something he talked about. 

When he met Yamaguchi Tadashi however, after some time and lots of puzzled looks, trying to figure out the mystery that his appearance seemed to be, the boy finally asked him the dreaded question: “Why are you blonde?”. And likewise, when he joined the Karasuno volleyball team, his teammates didn’t shy away from the question. All he told them was “My mom is French”, and that was it, no more details. It wasn’t a big deal to him, so he wasn’t gonna make it a big deal to anyone else. 

Well, that was it to the volleyball team. Yamaguchi had a bit of a special pass, having been friends with Tsukishima for so long. He knew his family, and he’d gone and asked Kei’s mom for more details about France, French people, why they were here. He was curious and knew Kei wouldn’t give him as many details as he wanted. The first time he asked, Kei gave him a look, but didn’t say anything because his mom was more than happy to quench Tadashi’s curiosity.

He’d done it a few times, enough so that Kei grew tired of hearing his mom and his best friend babbling about his origins and told Tadashi that if he still wanted to talk about it, he might as well directly ask him. 

It wasn’t brought up that often - Tadashi wasn’t the kind to be annoying on purpose, or at all - but the one thing that fascinated him the most is that Kei spoke French. Not perfect French, but enough to speak and impress people, apparently. His mom insisted on him learning it; she often spoke to him in French as he grew up, and still did sometimes, to make sure he wasn’t too rusty. Kei didn’t understand why she was so obsessed with it since they barely ever went to France, but if it made her happy…

Tadashi asked him to translate some things in French, sometimes. He really liked it. Kei didn’t see what was so appealing about it, but, even if he didn’t admit it to himself, he thought Tadashi pronouncing those words, trying to learn them, saying them with a big dorky smile on his face, that made it fun. 

The first thing he asked him to translate was “dinosaur”.

“Dinosaure,” Kei had told him. “Why do you want to know that, out of everything?”

“I thought it might be a word you’re familiar with,” Tadashi had answered with a playful grin, glancing to the various dinosaur toys lined on Kei’s shelves.

Then, he wanted to know how to say “strawberry”.

“It’s “fraise”, as in “tu ressembles à une fraise”.

“What does that mean? Are you insulting me?”

“Maybe,” Kei chuckled.

After that, it was “starry night” that Tadashi was interested in.

“As in the Van Gogh painting?”

“Not specifically but yes, it’s the same thing anyway.”

Kei stopped to think about it for a bit. He knew the French his mom taught him, but he never learned anything school-related in French, so this one was a bit harder.

“I know “night” is “nuit”,” he began, grabbing his laptop, “but “starry”, I don’t really know.”

He looked it up.

“Ha, it’s “nuit étoilée”. I forgot that word.”

“It’s understandable, it’s not very frequent.” Tadashi looked outside the window. “Nou-nouit… What did you say it was?”

“Étoilée. Nuit étoilée.”

“Noo-ee é-twa-ré,” Tadashi repeated carefully.

Kei turned around to face him. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Tadashi smiled. Kei did too. Somewhere inside, he felt tingles, warm little explosions. He felt good.

It became a sort of tradition. Everything Tadashi came around, he’d ask for something in French. Sometimes it was poetic, sometimes it was practical, sometimes it was ridiculous like that time he’d asked him how to say “hello aliens, I come in peace” because “you never know the languages aliens can and can’t understand”. It was always nice. It made Kei happy, to share this part of him he’d always taken for granted, something ordinary and mundane, but that was apparently so amazing to someone else.

One night, Tadashi decided to switch things up.

“ _ I  _ always ask  _ you  _ things to say, but what about you tell me something? I can try to guess what it means!”

“What, you want to reinvest all that useful vocabulary I’ve taught you?”

“Yes, I’m ready now, I’m fluent.  _ Fraise. Bonjour. Hippopotame.  _ See? If you didn’t know me you’d think I’m from Paris.”

“Obviously,” Kei grinned. “I don’t know what to say, though.”

“Find something then! I’m sure you can make it up.”

Kei’s lips pursed as he thought about it. He could make it easy so Tadashi would understand, but where was the challenge in that? Tadashi wanted a challenge. 

There were things he wanted to say but not be understood. But he didn’t have the guts for that, did he? He didn’t have it in him to say them to himself, much less to Tadashi.

“So…?” 

The things he wanted to say, they were itching. What’s so bad about it if Tadashi can’t understand, is what they were telling him. He hesitated.

“Um, I-”

“Come on Tsukki, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to speak French just this second.”

Kei looked at Tadashi. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, one of Kei’s old stuffed animals in his arms, expectantly waiting for Kei to say something. 

“T’es mignon, avec ton doudou.”

“What?” Tadashi laughed. “There wasn’t a single word I know in there! Not fair!”

“Ha well,” Kei answered, grinning somewhat nervously, “you’re the one who asked for a sentence in French.”

“What did it mean?”

“Um.”

Crap, he shouldn’t have wavered. Tadashi saw that something was up.

“It means stop asking annoying questions.”

“No it doesn’t. It sounded cute, you definitely weren’t telling me to shut up.”

“Well I am now. You said you were guessing, not that I was translating.”

Tadashi raised his eyebrows. “Sorry, Tsukki. I didn’t want to piss you off, I-”

“No, no! You didn’t! It’s just that-” Kei anxiously scratched the back of his head, “I said something stupid, I’m kind of… It feels awkward to explain it.”

“Oh, okay,” Tadashi agreed, “guess I won’t bother you with it if you don’t want to.”

Kei didn’t answer.

Weeks passed but that moment, that sentence that Kei said, it haunted him. Why did he say that? Where did that even come from? The worst thing is that when he said it, he really meant it. In fact, he still did, and he hated that. He hated what this was all hinting at. 

They were walking home from school. Not talking, just walking in each other’s company. It wasn’t unusual yet something felt odd. Tadashi kept glancing at Kei, readjusting his bag, playing with his fingers.

“Are you alright?” Kei asked.

“Yes!” Tadashi blurted out. “I’m all good. How do you say that in French, “I’m alright”?”

Kei raised an eyebrow. “Je vais bien. Are you sure?”

Tadashi stopped walking. Kei turned around to face him. He guessed there was something Tadashi wanted to tell him, he left him the space to do so. What he didn’t show was how tight his chest felt.

“I was wondering if, hum…” Tadashi started, not quite looking at Kei’s face but rather the streetlamp behind him, “if you wanted to go watch a movie tomorrow? The new one that came out about th-the little boy with magical powers.”

“Yeah, why not. That’s what was making you so nervous?”

“I mean like, as a… As a date.”

Kei almost choked on his own saliva. His composure was kept together by the skin of his teeth.

“Oh,” is what he managed to say. Seeing as Tadashi was starting to panic, he added, “Yes, yes, sure.”

He could read the surprise in his friend’s face. He wondered if it was as visible on his. 

Tadashi nodded. He was smiling but his eyes showed that his mind was somewhere else.

“Good. Cool. Nice.” 

Kei didn’t know if he could laugh at that. Tadashi just kept walking and Kei followed him.

“Also, unrelated but,” Tadashi changed the subject, “can I know what you said the other day?”

Kei blushed violently and prayed that neither Tadashi nor anyone on Earth saw that.

“I’d… rather not. Maybe one day. It was a really stupid thing..”

“Okay, then,” Tadashi murmured.

Kei looked at him. He’d just been asking on a date by his best friend, a date he’d gladly accepted, and now he was a blushing, heart-beating-so-fast-you-can-hear-it-from-ten-miles-aways mess. This, surprisingly, wasn’t so bad.

 

He reached for Tadashi’s hand and intertwined it with his. Tadashi smiled and didn’t try to cover it.

**Author's Note:**

> "t'es mignon, avec ton doudou" means "you're cute, with your teddy bear"


End file.
